Qantas Airways Being Sued $74 for Broken IFE

Over the past five years, the only movies I have watched tend to be children’s movies or those that I get to watch during flights.

Imagine taking a 10 hour flight. You’re looking forward to relaxing and watching a few movies but then it turns out that your inflight entertainment system is broken!

I know that I’d be pissed.

That’s pretty much what allegedly happened to a passenger during a Qantas Airways flight.

The passenger, Zoran Ivanovic was flying from Sydney to Hong Kong and now he is suing for $74. Yes $74!

Fox News reports that Ivanovivc claimed “he was forced to sit through a 10-hour flight without the use of a backseat entertainment system” (IFE). He let flight attendants know about the situation but the IFE wasn’t fixed.

The amount of money that Ivanovic is suing for sounds pretty comical but I do like the way he came up with the amount.

Ivanovic feels that he could’ve watched 5 movies during the flight. Going to a movie costs around $15 per movie so he figures that he lost $75 in value do to the broken entertainment system.

If I were Qantas Airways and I wanted to settle with Ivanovic, I wouldn’t pay him a penny over $60. In my opinion, it’s highly unlikely that a passenger could get through 5 movies during a 10 hour flight. Four is totally doable but five? I don’t think so! 🙂

Ivanovic already took his case to the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) but nothing came of his claims. Since the situation took place on an international flight, VCAT says they have no jurisdiction to make a decision on the matter.

According to the article, Qantas did apologize and offered 3,000 frequent flier points but Ivanovic turned the offer down feeling it wasn’t fair compensation for what he missed out on.

Ivanovic had another situation with the airline last year.

Fox reports that “In March 2016, he was issued a “no-fly” notice after an altercation with staff at the Qantas lounge of Changi Airport in Singapore. Twelve police officers were called to the scene and Ivanovic was blocked from boarding the plane. After the altercation, the furloughed passenger sought almost $1,900 in compensatory damages. The VCAT dismissed that claim as well.”

Do you feel that passengers should be compensated for having a broken IFE at their seat? I feel compensation should be given.

2 thoughts on “Qantas Airways Being Sued $74 for Broken IFE”

Some of the dates/timing are unclear. Article says he was issued a “no-fly” notice in March 2016. So did his flight with broken IFE occur prior to that, or was the no-fly restriction lifted so that he flew later on 2016? In any case, he sounds like a total pain the arse as a customer, and Qantas would do well to pay him his $74 and make him sign an agreement affirming the settlement/resolution of all outstanding grievances against Qantas. Then be sure to keep him off all future flights.